Stochastic Processes and the Dirac Equation with External Fields

The equation describing the stochastic motion of a classical particle in 1+1-dimensional space-time is connected to the Dirac equation with external gauge fields. The effects of assigning different turning probabilities to the forward and the backward moving particles in time are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, scalar parts eliminate

Redirected Walking in Infinite Virtual Indoor Environment Using Change-blindness

We present a change-blindness based redirected walking algorithm that allows a user to explore on foot a virtual indoor environment consisting of an infinite number of rooms while at the same time ensuring collision-free walking for the user in real space. This method uses change blindness to scale and translate the room without the user's awareness by moving the wall while the user is not looking. Consequently, the virtual room containing the current user always exists in the valid real space. We measured the detection threshold for whether the user recognizes the movement of the wall outside the field of view. Then, we used the measured detection threshold to determine the amount of changing the dimension of the room by moving that wall. We conducted a live-user experiment to navigate the same virtual environment using the proposed method and other existing methods. As a result, users reported higher usability, presence, and immersion when using the proposed method while showing reduced motion sickness compared to other methods. Hence, our approach can be used to implement applications to allow users to explore an infinitely large virtual indoor environment such as virtual museum and virtual model house while simultaneously walking in a small real space, giving users a more realistic experience.Comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-ZKavhXxd

Decadal changes in the leading patterns of sea level pressure in the Arctic and their impacts on the sea ice variability in boreal summer

Besides its negative trend, the interannual and the interdecadal changes in the Arctic sea ice have also been pronounced in recent decades. The three leading modes in the sea level pressure (SLP) variability in the Arctic (70???90??????N) ??? the Arctic Oscillation (AO), the Arctic Dipole (AD), and the third mode (A3) ??? are analyzed to understand the linkage between sea ice variability and large-scale atmospheric circulation in boreal summer (June???August). This study also compares the decadal changes of the modes between the early (1982???1997) and the recent (1998???2017) periods and their influences on the Arctic sea ice extent (SIE). Only the AD mode shows a significant correlation increase with SIE in summer (JJA) from ???0.05 in the early period to 0.57 in the recent period. The AO and the A3 modes show a less significant relationship with SIE for the two periods. The AD is characterized by a dipole pattern of SLP, which modulates the strength of meridional surface winds and the Transpolar Drift Stream (TDS). The major circulation change in the late 1990s is that the direction of the wind has been changed more meridionally over the exit region of the Fram Strait, which causes sea ice drift and discharge through that region. In addition, the response of surface albedo and the net surface heat flux becomes larger and much clearer, suggesting a positive sea-ice???albedo feedback in the sea ice variability associated with the AD. The analysis also reveals that the zonal shift of the centers of SLP anomalies and associated circulation change affects a significant reduction in sea ice concentration over the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean. This study further suggests that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) phase change could influence the spatial pattern change in the AD

How Team-Level and Individual-Level Conflict Influences Team Commitment: A Multilevel Investigation

We investigate how two different types of conflict (task conflict and relationship conflict) at two different levels (individual-level and team-level) influence individual team commitment. The analysis was conducted using data we collected from 193 employees in 31 branch offices of a Korean commercial bank. The relationships at multiple levels were tested using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The results showed that individual-level relationship conflict was negatively related to team commitment while individual-level task conflict was not. In addition, both team-level task and relationship conflict were negatively associated with team commitment. Finally, only team-level relationship conflict significantly moderated the relationship between individual-level relationship conflict and team commitment. We further derive theoretical implications of these findings